Saturday, June 9, 2012

Whereas cuticles are criminally abused, the car is furious packed and repacked, and coffee mugs are topped, we hereby move to Pittsburgh.

Tonight we are stopped in Cheyenne, because
we see absolutely no sense in speeding across the country. That means that a short 7 hours got us from
our doorstep in Utah to the I-80 Holiday Inn* in lower Wyoming. It’s not far, but everything feels different.

The newness of the move kicked in when we hit the 215 going
east out of South Salt Lake. This interchange
is only 10 minutes from where we lived for the last 3 years, but it’s a
direction I rarely take. That less
familiar view brought into focus some more expansive vistas: five-plus years of
dense urban neighborhoods, late-night deadlines, and no lack of lake effect. (To my Salt Lake friends, for most Americans
the term “lake effect” does not mean the stench of brine shrimp blowing into
the valley. It’s a cold, hard dump of
snow and ice launched from any number of Great Lakes—or so I have heard.) I have mixed thoughts on all of this, but my
feelings are fairly clear. There is a core
of confidence covered in a thin layer of anxiety. Wavering through this emotional sphere is an electromagnetic
field of what the Brazilians call saudade.

I will miss my mother’s good cheer, my sister’s passion, my
brother’s unique mixture of stoicism and compassion. My nieces and nephews will be near my
thoughts, and missed most of all. I
think about little Alejandra and her easy way of cuddling with uncle Toy-toy,
or Wyatt and his precocious knock-knock jokes.
I will miss talking Java with my dad, and having birthdays with his
wife and kids. Not least of all, there
are scores of baristas dotting the Wasatch Front who have set a high standard for
my expectations of service workers in Pennsylvania. (Yes, as a whole, these SLC punks out-perform
the baristas of Portland.—if only I could have had as good a cup of coffee.)

To ease the transition, we have a number of nesting plans. Vivian has already designed about 13 rooms
worth of decorative themes. Friday
nights will be Board Game Night for anyone interested in showing up. We have encouraged all of our loved ones to
get on Skype, and we’re planning a video blog of our new life…or at least the
silliest aspects of it which we can discover or invent. These will mostly be for the children and the
easily amused, you see.

My final thoughts tonight are for all of you that I did not
spend enough time with while I was in Salt Lake, or during my semi-regular
trips to Portland. I have not forgotten a
single one of my friends and loved ones, but that doesn’t mean I always called
you when I could have. My apologies for
this. My only excuse is that I was able
to devote enough time to my school work that I have now been invited to work in
one of the most exciting departments of one of the most innovative universities
in all the world. It was a rough trade,
but one of the main advantages of a PhD from Carnegie Mellon is going to be regular
travel to the cities which my favorite people inhabit, wherever in the world
you might be.